City crews and members of the U.S. Navy were out along the Pearl Harbor Bike Path Friday morning clearing trash, debris, and overgrown shrubs.
It’s part of the second phase of a cleanup and maintenance project for the area.
A section of the path between Aiea Kai Place and the Best Buy parking lot was closed earlier this week and will remain closed through Friday, Oct. 13, as work continues.
The cleanup also includes clearing out homeless encampments by enforcing its Stored Property Ordinance along the path.
The city’s Office of Housing and Department of Community Services have been coordinating outreach with non-profit service providers to offer options for homeless in the area.
“Before we could begin enforcement, we had to remove nine truckloads of literal trash that had been accumulated by the people that were encamped here,” said Ross Sasamura, director of the city Department of Facility Maintenance. “Phase one, we removed about 35 cubic yards of metals. We removed 82,000 pounds of trash and debris and we removed 43 shopping carts just from the area between Blaisdell Park, Hekaha Place, and Lehua Avenue.”
This is the second time the city has closed a portion of the Pearl Harbor Bike Path following a grant of easement agreement between the City and County of Honolulu and the U.S. Navy.
The prior closure took place from Aug. 7 through 31, and also involved the closure of Neal S. Blaisdell Park for landscaping and maintenance work.
People who use the bike path are being detoured to Kamehameha Highway until the second phase of cleanup is complete.
